2002 Spain

The absolutely delightful López de Heredia family are traditional to the core, making wine as they have been since 1877 and refusing to compromise in any way. Pale imitators have cut corners, most specifically by reducing ageing time for Reservas, but here the wine has had its full six years in American oak, contemplating its future in the famously cob-webbed cellars, Stygian avant la lettre. The blend, as usual, is made from three quarters Tempranillo with the balance shared evenly between Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo. During the ageing process, racking has taken place twice every year. Patience has been rewarded by a marvellously supple, complex and subtle wine, its fruit descriptors wreathed in spice and experience, its acidity beautifully balanced and its oak adding further profundity to the ensemble. 
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer This traditional Rioja is a real delight. Extremely complex aromas and a very refined palate of red fruits, tea leaves and leathery notes.
Javier Perurena, London Shop

Opaque crimson suggests a brooding powerhouse of a wine and the 2002 Unico delivers with gusto! Remarkable perfume: lifted, pure and fresh cherry fruit, with a host of flavours: clove, liquorice, tea, truffle and sousbois. The palate is wonderfully dense, with tingling acidity perfectly cutting the huge flavours, leading into a seemingly endless finish. Sheer class.
Fine Wine Team

The fruits of a single vineyard, founded in 1945 and predominately made up of Tempranillo grapes, El Pison has acquired legendary status. This is underlined by the beguiling complexity of the nose, which marries fruits of the forest with herbs and minerals and even a hint of aniseed. The palate is precocious, still quite taut, tannins dry and powerful and a weight of fruit which starts to sing after a couple of minutes in the glass and which will keep on singing for many years in bottle.